May 15th, 2008
The Great Ocean Road
No-one can really decide where the Great Ocean Road starts and stops, but they say it runs from Torquay to Warrnambool. This is nearly 300 km which seems a long way so we were looking forward to our long coast-hugging journey. You can’t help but get excited by the name, it conjures up something majestic and heroic. And you’re going to drive it! Whilst I don’t want to do it an injustice, much of this drive is in fact inland and 300 km isn’t really that far in open-country Australia, so it’s more like just ‘The Road’ really. However, whilst you are on it, it’s probably one of THE best and most distracting drives in the world; for the times when you do find yourself by the sea you can’t take your eyes off it and you let the road take you like a roller-coaster as it winds, turns and sweeps it’s way.
One of our first stops on the way out of Melbourne was an Aboriginal Cultural Centre, which I had been looking forward to. We hadn’t learnt much about the Aborigines since our time in the Northern Territory so I took the opportunity to duck in. It was in a modern facility, with nice boardwalks between several buildings. Unfortunately, it was a real let down. Some of the buildings were shut, one was just a dead coffee shop and there wasn’t really any information on display, only a couple of paintings. So it’s funny that our next museum choice ‘Surfworld’, in Torquay, really blew us away. It’s probably no surprise that Torquay is named the way it is. Like so many other towns and stops across Australia, there is absolutely no inspiration or individuality when it comes to naming places here; take places like Newcastle, or all the roads named after the pioneers and Prime Ministers, or billabongs and crossings like 15 Mile Creek; 7 Mile Creek… the list goes on. All a little predictable, but they all do what they say on the tin, so I guess as least there’s no confusion anywhere. So anyway, not only was the surf museum really well laid out, but it had some awesome videos of some hard nut cases chasing the freakishly huge Maverick waves in Japan. Gnarly dude. With a spring in our step and surfboard in hand we went round the corner to Bell’s Beach to experience THE place where the big waves come in. Top surfers arrive here each year to carve up the waves in the World Championships. Apparently this is their spiritual home but when we rocked up the waves were piddly, the water was cold and we moved quietly on.
Now if, like me, you like lighthouses, then the southern (and western) part of Australia is not to be missed. The underside of Australia is a pretty hazardous and rocky area and not many sailors of yore made it through without the odd mishap until the lighthouses were installed. There’s even an area here called the Shipwreck Coast. Our first visit was to the Cape Otway Lighthouse, a really well-looked after relic with beautiful white stone walls and pretty red balconies. Scrummy. The views weren’t bad either. And it was made better being Australia’s oldest lighthouse, which actually to be honest isn’t much of a shout as it was only built in 1848 :) Nothing is really that old in Australia, unless you count the Aborigines but then it’s difficult to learn much about them it seems and until the 1970’s they weren’t counted either :(
So. One of the main reasons to make your way along the Great Ocean Road is to have a look at The 12 Apostles. This is the name given to a cluster of tall stacks of soft sandstone rock which have been left stranded in the sea whilst the land has receded. The name however is a bit of a misnomer as there are now only about 6 or 7 of the stacks left – but it depends which bits of broken rock you count as I made 8. We took the picture-postcard snaps and cooed over them for a while. Further down the road there are several more formations each with a different name, so we continued on and got very distracted by many of them. There’s even one called London Bridge, being two stacks with an arch over the top. Unfortunately, 20 years ago the arch fell into the sea apparently stranding two tourists on top of one of the stacks… I’m glad we’ve seen the 12, sorry 6, Apostles, as they might not still be here if we ever come back!
We tried to make it to the next town in good time before the light faded but we kept finding ourselves stopping to take in yet another jaw-dropping view. But we did make it to Warrnambool before sunset and it was all over. Our trip on The Great Ocean Road had only lasted two days.